Anglogold leads bid to polish gold's image
Thursday November 26, 3:57 am Eastern Time
PERTH, Nov 26 (Reuters) - A private meeting of some of the world's
biggest gold mining houses has begun foundation work for a new industry
body designed to polish up gold's tarnished image among investors, several
Australian invitees to the meeting confirmed on Thursday.
More than 20 executives from North American, African and Australian gold
companies attended the all-day meeting on November 21 at London's
Grosvenor House hotel.
The meeting was headed by Bobby Godsell, chief executive of the world's biggest gold mining house, Anglogold Ltd .
Others on the final attendance list, but not confirmed as attending, included heads of Barrick Gold Corp
(Toronto:ABX.TO - news), Battle Mountain Gold Co (NYSE:BMG - news), Placer Dome Inc (Toronto:PD.TO - news),
Ashanti Goldfields Co , Gold Fields Ltd , Normandy Mining Ltd and WMC Ltd , the sources said.
Chris Thompson, the chairman of Gold Fields, on Wednesday said a key issue facing producers was improving the
industry's understanding of the world gold market.
An Australian mining executive who attended said it was ''the most powerful meeting of gold producers ever called.''
He declined to be named because of secrecy provisions covering the meeting.
In an October 28 letter of invitation to the meeting seen by Reuters, Godsell said the objectives were: ''To identify and
agree on those challenges and concerns which are shared by the industry as a whole ... To determine if producers are
willing to act in concert.. To agree on the nature, direction and scope of that response.''
''We recognise, of course, that any discussions among producers must be extremely sensitive to the anti-competitive
laws and policies of the various countries in which we operate,'' Godsell said in the letter.
''I am proposing a chief executive officer-level body called the 'Gold Mining Industry Forum','' he said.
Godsell said the new body would not replace the existing World Gold Council (WGC), which is funded by about 70
percent of the world's gold miners.
However, another attendee said it was ''hard to see the new body doing anything but replace the WGC.''
He added that ''overall, the meeting was a pretty tame affair.''
Bullion producers are nearing the end of a dismal year which saw prices slump to record lows amid central bank gold
sales and even more damaging speculation over central bank intentions toward the precious metal.
Bullion was trading around US$296 an ounce on Thursday, a far cry from the $400 level reached in the mid-1990s.
Consumption of around 3,000 tonnes of gold a year outruns annual production of only around 2,000 tonnes, but surplus
supplies estimated to be as much as 35,000 tonnes -- much of it held by banks -- continue to weigh on the price.
Invitations to attend the London meeting were sent to more than 30 large gold mining houses, sources said.
On November 17 a list of those who had accepted, and those who declined, was circulated.
Godsell, in a second letter sent with the confirmed list of attendees said four points needed to be considered before the
London meeting.
Those points were ''what the meeting is all about, why chief executives need to be there, the relationship with the WGC
and whether the meeting was a way for South African producers to regain control of the WGC.''
In answer to the final point he said: ''No, it is not.''
biz.yahoo.com |
